Another proud achievement was made by Chinese Literature students at the end of 2024. The encouraging news came from a Chinese Literature student from the Class of 2023 named Ayunda Auliasari who won 2nd place in the Mandarin Poetry Reading Competition at the Dongzhi Festival held by the Eng An Kiong Temple Foundation, Malang, East Java.
Ayunda Auliasari, often called El, admitted that she has been exploring her talent for poetry reading since elementary school. However, the Mandarin poetry reading competition was the first time. By capitalizing on her practice (autodidact) while remembering the memory of poetry exercises in the past, she managed to show her best performance.
El shared her experience when preparing for this competition, she admitted that one of the challenges faced was training Mandarin pronunciation, which is an important factor in the assessment of the Mandarin Poetry Reading competition and has a fairly high standardization. In addition, many other participants are also experienced and have a passion for this field. Even so, El did not give up hope and could get through with maximum results. “I was a little insecure but thank god I survived,” she exclaimed.
El hopes to be able to often participate in similar competitions in the future, not only because of his passion for poetry reading but also to be able to simultaneously excel and make Brawijaya University’s Chinese Literature proud. In addition, she added “I hope that the Chinese Literature study program can provide a wider appreciation space, not only for students who excel academically or have excellent Mandarin skills. This is because achievements can also be born from individuals with academic potential who may look ordinary, but have strong ambitions that allow them to survive, develop, and excel with the skills they already have”.
Ayunda Auliasari’s encouraging achievement also made the year 2024 full of joy. Hopefully, in the coming year, there will be more achievements and good news for the Chinese Literature Study Program at Brawijaya University.